RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS Nature Reviews Urology 11, 658 (2014); published online 28 October 2014; doi:10.1038/nrurol.2014.299
PROSTATE CANCER
Predicting outcomes of recurrence after escalated-dose radiotherapy Newly published research has characterized the natural history of biochemically recurrent disease in patients treated for localized prostate cancer using escalated-dose external beam radiotherapy (EBRT), and has identified risk factors for distant metastasis and prostate‑cancer‑specific mortality (PCSM). Biochemical failure occurs in a proportion of patients treated with radical prostatectomy or radiotherapy. The progression of recurrent prostate cancer following biochemical failure is heterogeneous, and includes both indolent disease and aggressive recurrence. The natural history of recurrent prostate cancer following definitive treatment using radical prostatectomy has been well characterized, but less information is available on the outcomes following radiotherapy.
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…patients with two or more unfavourable risk factors had almost universally poor outcomes…
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Dose-escalated EBRT, using a total radiation dose ≥75.6 Gy, is the most common form of radiotherapy in use today. Zumsteg and colleagues considered 2,694 patients with localized prostate cancer who were treated with EBRT (total dose 75.6–86.4 Gy) between 1991 and 2008. 609 of these patients experienced biochemical failure, with a serum PSA measurement of ≥2 ng/ml above the PSA nadir. From the date of biochemical failure, the median time to distant metastases was 5.4 years, and that to PCSM was 10.5 years, resulting in a 5-year cumulative incidence of PCSM of 18%. Short PSA doubling time (PSADT
PROSTATE CANCER
Predicting outcomes of recurrence after escalated-dose radiotherapy Newly published research has characterized the natural history of biochemically recurrent disease in patients treated for localized prostate cancer using escalated-dose external beam radiotherapy (EBRT), and has identified risk factors for distant metastasis and prostate‑cancer‑specific mortality (PCSM). Biochemical failure occurs in a proportion of patients treated with radical prostatectomy or radiotherapy. The progression of recurrent prostate cancer following biochemical failure is heterogeneous, and includes both indolent disease and aggressive recurrence. The natural history of recurrent prostate cancer following definitive treatment using radical prostatectomy has been well characterized, but less information is available on the outcomes following radiotherapy.
‘‘
…patients with two or more unfavourable risk factors had almost universally poor outcomes…
’’
Dose-escalated EBRT, using a total radiation dose ≥75.6 Gy, is the most common form of radiotherapy in use today. Zumsteg and colleagues considered 2,694 patients with localized prostate cancer who were treated with EBRT (total dose 75.6–86.4 Gy) between 1991 and 2008. 609 of these patients experienced biochemical failure, with a serum PSA measurement of ≥2 ng/ml above the PSA nadir. From the date of biochemical failure, the median time to distant metastases was 5.4 years, and that to PCSM was 10.5 years, resulting in a 5-year cumulative incidence of PCSM of 18%. Short PSA doubling time (PSADT
